Sunday, March 10, 2013

Avra Valley Jaunt

Driving west of Tucson on a cloudy, sometimes rainy day, we saw magnificent chunks of mountain in fractal silhouette against skies filled with ultra blue holes that emerged from giant cumulus puffs of cloud. This view, altered into an old West look, was taken on Red Rock Road, out near the Silver Bell mine.

Heidi and I posed for our picture next to a crazy saguaro that had upwards of 100 arms and nobs. We stopped to photograph this unusual specimen and chatted with a man and his mother. She was from Oregon and was delighted that we liked the saguaro since it is a favorite of hers which they come to visit every year.

I asked the gentleman if he was a researcher, by any chance, and he replied, "no, we just like cactus." He gave me a few tips of where to see other crazy type saguaros.

When he offered to take our photo with the cactus, we quickly said "yes" and this photo is the result.

Another obliging photographer who happened to be our waitperson at Wildflower, a restaurant near the corner of Oracle and Ina in Tucson, took this photo of Richard and Ed and Heidi and me. Wildflower is across the street from where the Tucson shootings happened in January 2011.

We enjoyed a lovely meal which capped off some delightful days spent with Richard and Heidi in the Desert Southwest.